River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1887-01-27


article entitled Fever Direct From the
Cow, - which will be read with interest
on both sides of the Atlantic. 1t sayr
The latest revelation of medicine is
almost rs alarming 90 the one hand as
it is consoling on the other, for while
it well nigh undertakes to give Us the
means of stamping out scarlet fever. it
only does so at the expense of the
reputation OF that universal food, milk.
In the last month of last year some of
the northern and northwestern suburbs
of London were visited by several
simultaneous outbreaks of scarlet fever,
which were disconnected otherwise
than by being situated in localities
supplied with milk from common
SOURCE. No human origin of the vari-
Gus outbreaks through the ordinary
process of infection was discoverable;
no fault was to be found in the sani-
tary condition of the dairy whence the
milk came, and only some of the dis
tricts supplied from that dairy were
infected with the disease.
These circumstances seemed 10 point
to something i'm the milk itself that gave
rise to the epidemic. and along tine
lines Of this hypothesis Mr.. Power. a
Medical Inspector of the Local Govern
ment Board, began to work. He soOn
found that the commencement of the
fever had dated from the time when
certain newly-purchased COWS had ar
rived AZ the dairy; that as these COWS
we're moved from Shed to shed, SO the
disease broke out in this, that, and the
other district to which the milk from
the several sheds was sent; and. lastly.
that these particular cows had suffered
from peculiar eruption on the udders
and elsewhere. Some of the milk
from the same cows having
been returned to the farmer, and hay-
ing been begged by cottagers from the
men whom the farmer had told to throw
it away, an outbreak of scarlet fever
occurred in the families of the cottagers
a week later. After this confirmation
of previous suspicious, two of the COWS
were bought and handed over to DIR.
Klein, of the Brown Institution, which
is connected with the London University
and was founded for the purpose of de-
termiuing the relationship of the dis
eases of animals to those Of man.
Here the eruption already mentioned
was made the subject of special invest
igation. was found to spread by ordl-
nary contact from COW TO COW, TO be in
oculable, and the matter obtained from
it to be cultivable in other media, and
what was of the greatest moment
also in milk. A calf died of disease
produced by incubation with one Of
the sub-cultureS. and its internal organs
Mt Il post-mortem examination, were
found to be in the same condition as
would be those of a man who had dicG
of scarlet fever Ii is as yet, perhaps,
too soon to say with certainty that the
fever in man was the direct consequence
of the eruption in the COWS. apd still
more to assert that every ease OF scar
let fever in human beings is caused in
THIS way,
But the facts that have been ascer-
tanned point very strongly in Il certain
direction. and DR.. Klein, suggestion
is. that the infectiye matter from the
sores on the udders being pressed by
the mixers hand, may enter the milk,
there multiply, and so ultimately cause
this illness to those who drink the
fluid. If this theory is substantiated,
we shall. doubtless. soon hear of
scientific preventiyes, either in the way
Of boiling milk, adding some chemical
germicide to it, inoculating with the
virus or sacrificing suspicious cows. Ii.
at length, medical men are really on
the track of the cause of scarlet fever.
the boon to the community will be
immense. seeing that that disease alone
is responsible for one-thirtieth part of
the whole number of yearly deaths in
this country.